CBI busts dodgy doctor's filmmaking dreams (With Image)

Chandigarh, Nov 26 (IANS) It could be a script for a movie. A qualified doctor, who allegedly helped candidates cheat in post−graduate courses in medicine and surgery and used the ill−gotten money to produce films in southern India, is now in the custody of the CBI.

Kota Gangadhar Reddy's multi−tasking life is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

He was running a well−oiled racket of leaking out question papers of the MD and MS (doctor of medicine and master of surgery) entrance examinations at the Post−Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here.

Reddy, who introduced himself as an MS−ortho (master of surgery in orthopaedics), was arrested with 15 others earlier this month by the CBI after it busted an inter−state racket that was spread across Chandigarh to Hyderabad to Patna.

CBI investigators are amused that this medicine−man was not only using his intelligence to help others cheat in exams but was using the money to fund films in the south Indian film industry to satisfy his urge to become famous.

Reddy's Facebook page shows that he floated a film−production company, Kota Film Corporation (KFC), and produced films. KFC has an office in Hyderabad.

"We are investigating his links to the south Indian film industry. We cannot give out details now," a CBI official told IANS.

CBI sources said that Reddy, who was arrested from Patna Nov 11, used to provide answers to leaked question papers of MD and MS entrance exams to students who paid P. Gurivi Reddy, the kingpin of the paper leakage gang.

Among the 15 people arrested by the CBI, seven are women, who were taking the MD and MS entrance exams here Nov 10 as decoy candidates. None of them is a qualified MBBS, the minimum qualification to take the test.

"The decoy candidates used sophisticated mobile applications on their smartphones to leak the questions from the examination centre. Reddy provided the answers from Patna to Gurivi, who was sitting in a hotel in Chandigarh. Gurivi was dictating the answers through micro−earphones to the candidates," a CBI investigator said.

CBI sources said that the actual beneficiaries were yet to be arrested in the case. Seven such beneficiaries have been questioned so far.

"We are collecting evidence in this matter before taking action against the accused beneficiaries," CBI Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Mahesh Aggarwal said here.

Reddy, Gurivi and the other accused, who are in judicial custody, are lodged in the high−security Burail prison here.

Some of the accused told the CBI that they had told their families in Andhra Pradesh that they were going on a holiday to Himachal Pradesh when they went to Chandigarh to appear as decoy candidates.

Following the CBI raids Nov 10, the entrance test was stopped. PGIMER cancelled the test after the CBI registered a case. A fresh test would be held next month.

"To prevent the use of any unfair means, metal detectors and jammers would be used at all examination centres and candidates would be frisked prior to their entry," PGIMER authorities said here.

The post−graduate course at PGIMER is much sought after by medical graduates from across the country and only a few, among hundreds, are able to qualify for it.